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Add missing information about the handling of input, output, and
character encoding, clarify the description of table mode, and say
that columns are filled before rows by default.
Feedback an OK jmc@, OK martijn@.

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.\"     @(#)column.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.Dd $Mdocdate: October 21 2016 $
.Dt COLUMN 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm column
.Nd columnate lists
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm column
.Op Fl tx
.Op Fl c Ar columns
.Op Fl s Ar sep
.Op Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility formats its input into multiple columns.
Each input line provides the text for one output cell.
Columns are filled before rows.
.Pp
The column width is determined by the longest input line rounded
up to the nearest tabstop; tabstops are assumed to be at multiples
of eight.
Output uses tab characters to advance to the next column.
The number of columns is chosen to fill the terminal width.
.Pp
Input is taken from
.Ar file
operands or, by default, from the standard input.
Empty lines and lines containing only whitespace are ignored.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl c Ar columns
Output is formatted for a display
.Ar columns
wide.
.It Fl s Ar sep
Specify a set of characters to delimit columns for the
.Fl t
option.
It defaults to space and tab.
.It Fl t
Table mode.
Each input line provides the text for one output row.
It is split into cells using the
.Fl s
option.
Leading, trailing, and multiple adjacent delimiters are ignored.
Each column is as wide as the widest cell in it.
Columns are separated by two spaces.
.It Fl x
Fill rows before filling columns.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width LC_CTYPE
.It Ev COLUMNS
If set to a positive integer,
output is formatted to the given width in display columns.
Otherwise,
.Nm
defaults to the terminal width, or 80 columns if the output is not a terminal.
.It Ev LC_CTYPE
The character encoding
.Xr locale 1 .
It decides which byte sequences form characters, what their display
width is, and which characters are whitespace.
If unset or set to
.Qq C ,
.Qq POSIX ,
or an unsupported value, each byte except the tab is treated as a
character of display width 1.
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std column
.Sh EXAMPLES
List the current working directory's contents, in detail,
with nicely formatted headings for each of the fields:
.Bd -literal -offset 4n
$ (echo "PERM LINKS OWNER GROUP SIZE MONTH DAY HH:MM/YEAR NAME" ; \e
	ls -l | sed 1d) | column -t
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr colrm 1 ,
.Xr ls 1 ,
.Xr paste 1 ,
.Xr sort 1
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.3 Reno .